Gardening Experiences That Worked and Some That Didn't

It has taken me a couple of years learning how to grow turmeric. It probably took me this long because I didn't bother finding anything about how it grows or the best way to grow it. So if you are thinking of growing turmeric for its health benefits here...

My moringa oleifera cutting came from Rob Bob's Backyard Farm & Aquaponics. I happened to meet RobBob just before Christmas. If you don’t know RobBob, he’s a bit of a YouTube legend and a good bloke as well. He was good enough to let me have a cutting from a moringa...

Is there anything better than smashed avocado fresh off your own tree? Looking out my computer area window and all I see is an old palm that has seen better days with a china mushroom at the base of it. Time to do something about making it a better view. And what...

Went to Eat Street Northshore today and had a pleasant time wandering around the food vendors on the banks of the Brisbane River near the cruise terminal. While there I tried a few of the different dishes from the Japanese pizza, to the salt and pepper...

Cover crops are one of the easiest ways to build up your soil, protect it from the sub-tropical winter dry weather and early Spring heat. They also attract worms and soil microbes and they can be chopped in to add organic matter as well as having a root system that as...

Is it better to use seeds or seedlings? If you haven't planned in advance the decision is easy to make, get some seedlings. But if you have planned your calendar for raising seedlings and planting out, there are still times when it is better and more cost effective to...

To Spray or Not To Spray Do I spray? That is the constant question running through the mind of the home gardener. On the one hand is the want to grow organic produce without the use of chemicals and fungicides. Deep inside there is an intuitive knowledge that tells...

I prefer to grow food in the dirt without using pesticides, chemicals fungicides and tricks to make a vegetable grow bigger or faster. I still remember what a chicken used to taste like when it took thirteen to sixteen weeks to grow them for consumption, not the six...

It's been a while since I did an update on the Chinese chipper mulcher I purchased about three years ago. It gets used about twice a year and what has surprised me is that every time I wheel it out, it starts first time. I haven't had to charge the battery, just check...

Volunteer Potatoes A few of last year’s potatoes decided to reshoot in the bed that I wanted to grow corn this year. I dug them out to see if there were any potatoes worth salvaging. Unfortunately the bed was quite hard and the potatos had a hard job growing into the...

Remember the instant trellis. Now it is the angled luffa green wall. The house behind it hadn't started being built when I took the photo of the instant trellis. I have had some angled luffa seeds for a couple of years now purchased from Green Harvest. The packet said...

Growing in the dirt produces a far better crop than all of the other techniques like hydroponics, aquaponics, aeroponics and chemical gardening. Chemical gardening is a term I use for that system of growing where the dirt or sand is only a medium for holding the...

I have just finished reading Inferno by Dan Brown. For those who don't know, the author uses Dante's Divine Comedy as a backdrop for a really good read. It took me a while to pick this one up (it was released in 2013) as I wasn't too fussed about reading another of...

Comfrey is a forgotten hero of the gardening world. It has a higher fertilizer analysis than most animal manures and compost. It has a tap root that goes metres into the earth and drags up minerals. I grow it at the edge of my bed as it is very good at suppressing...

Yes, I know nearly everyone calls them egg plants. But have a think about it for a minute. I am talking about the fruit that is on the plant. So what would that be? Egg plant fruit? Hence, I call them egg fruit. Have a look at this Lebanese egg plant. Hasn't it got...

Castoffs Make an Instant Trellis I have been thinking about how to build a trellis for the climbing plants I want to grow. Plants like cucumber, climbing beans, some Asian climbing plants and maybe some gourds. I needed a fairly strong trellis and was thinking that a...

Gardening is a learning curve and the best way to get better at it is to keep doing it and try and keep some records so you can look back and see what works at what time of year. You will get failures along the way, but they are one step in finding out what grows well...

I planted some Black Russian Tomatoes in the wicking bed and showed how to tie them up and prune them. These are some very strong tomato vines. This vine has one set of roots and two laterals that I have tied with string to the overhead wire. As the vine grows, I wind...